Selsi Salt Bar
92 Front Street East
St. Lawrence Market, Lower Level
416-854-9088

Food and Wine magazine hails St. Lawrence Market as one of the top 25 food markets of the world, and we Torontonians honour it as such. A jewel of our fair city, bursting to the weekday seams with students and construction workers indulging in the generously piled $5 veal sandwich, it is one floor meats, cheeses and fish mongers alike, over another floor of gourmet snacks, treasures and uncommon goods. The market is more than a food institution; it is our icon.

On the east side of the lower level, beside a walkout to the street, is a kiosk well stocked in both gourmet calibre and the exceptional find. Selsi Salt Bar isn’t unique in that it carries salt, but unmatched in that salt, with all its different colours, flavours and boundless varieties, is the main product.

Continue reading Our Lady of Salt »

Lady and Son Butchery
1175 Queen Street East
416-913-2598

As soon as customers enter the door, proprietress and butcher Voula Mantis, will most likely try to feed them. It may be the tennis ball-sized clementines just in, or decadent Belgium butter wafers, or perhaps some grilled chorizo. Even regulars who’ve just popped in to say hello as they were passing by are sent off with some homemade meatballs. Those who’ve come for dinner ideas get mouth-watering preparation advice along with their choice. For example, veal - egg wash dip, fresh chive and garlic seasoned bread crumbs, sear in hot cast iron pan with a light oil and a little butter, finish in a hot oven - and serving suggestions, to boot; “A mushroom ragout would go really well with that.”

Continue reading First Lady of Meat On Queen »

Laws are like sausages, it is better not to see them being made. - Otto von Bismarck

I can’t testify to the accuracy of the above quote, at least when it comes to laws. But Mario Fiorucci, co-owner of the Healthy Butcher (565 Queen Street West), may be able to as a former Bay Street lawyer. And despite his years in the muck that is lawyering he still decided to open a butcher shop and actually make sausages.

And of course there is always the old saying about sausages and hotdogs – It’s all tits, lips, and assholes. That may be true at the big meat production companies, I can’t say, however the sausages at the healthy butcher are in no way representative of the factory-produced versions. In fact, to find out the truth about sausage making, simply sign up for one of the Healthy Butcher’s sausage-making classes.

Continue reading Wurst Night in Toronto »

For Christmas a couple of years ago I got Gordon Ramsay Makes it Easy. I wanted to start off really easy. So it looked like I would be making his version of scrambled eggs, which is more of a creamed egg dish and was the easiest recipe in the book.

Except that it called for crème fraîche.

“Bloody hell,” I said in my best North County-cum-Glaswegian accent. “Maybe it’s easy for those who stock crème fraîche for our everyday-bacon-and-eggs needs, but what about the rest of us?” At that point I’d never even seen it in a store. For novice cooks, this can put the brakes on full. And for the record, it can’t be replaced with sour cream, I’ve tried and the results aren’t good.

Continue reading Crème Fraîche Isn’t French Sour Cream »

My first encounter with escargots wasn’t a very good one. I was about seven at the time. Rather than being repulsed by the thought of eating a creature that left a trail of slime as it crawled around the back garden, I was quite keen on the idea. My mother had been given a “kit” comprising a tin of snails, a dozen or so snail shells, and four double-pronged forks. Mom set to work preparing the dish, stuffing the wee snails into their shells, sealing them inside with cold garlic butter, and then popping them under the broiler until the butter was melted and bubbling. Unfortunately some vital step in the preparation had been overlooked (I still don’t know which one it was), and the snails, once dug from their shells with those special pointy forks, had the taste and texture of large pencil erasers that had been stewed in a puddle of buttery mud.

Yet for some reason, that first experience with escargots left me undeterred. Which is a good thing, otherwise I would have missed out on a few delightful gastropodous experiences in our fair city.

Continue reading On the Trail of the Snail »

Just before the holidays a group of activists staged a protest outside of Pusateri’s. What was it they were protesting? Child labour? Underpaid employees? Unsafe foods from China?

No, they were protesting the sale of foie gras.

Foie gras gets a bad rap in the press. It’s an easy target. And because it’s an easy target some anti-animal-agriculture groups use it as a wedge issue in their campaigns against meat eating in general.

Some of the most vocal carnivores often draw the line at foie gras (The super-fatty liver of ducks or geese) for its perceived cruelty. Gavage (a fancy word for “force feeding”) is an unsightly process, but most of the meat we eat, even the green, organic free range stuff is the product of unsightly processes.

So what’s an omnivore to do?

Continue reading Foie Gras Ducks the Issues »

Although I try to eat a mostly seasonal diet, I’ve got to admit that in the dark months of January and February, I start craving fruit. Not just apples and pears, but bright juicy summer fruits like berries. At least once every winter I break down and come home from the grocery store with a bag of cherries, just because I really, really need them, even if they’re nowhere as good as the local cherries we get in the summertime.

Given that this week is the first National Eat Red Week (February 4th - February 10th), I don’t feel so bad about indulging in some cherries. Particularly since local tart cherries are available both dried and in juice concentrate form year round – Ontario is the sole producing province of commercially-grown tart cherries, most of which are the Montmorency variety, and over the past five years, the average annual crop has been an average of 10 million pounds.

Continue reading Life’s a Bowl of Cherries »

La Fromagerie
868 College Street
416-516-4278

Robert Burns’ shop is tailored toward a nice hike in the mountains of France where he was once married. Not the correct footwear and walking stick one may need, but rather the food. Take several types of cheese, a couple of baguettes and several French saucission. He doesn’t sell the other integral ingredient, red wine, but that can be purchased on the way to the hillside.

Yet La Fromagerie is in fact near no French mountains, or mountains at all for that matter. This is College Street and the red streetcar going by clearly indicates this is Toronto. The hike required is only the one back home. And it’s probably only a block or two away, as this cozy cheese shop has a neighbourhood feel to it. Instead of laying out a picnic gazing across lush valleys, the reality is more like gazing across the living room floor at the television. Continue reading From the Mountains of College & Ossington »

Local, traceable, and meaty are in, while equatorial fruit and small plates are passé.

A quick not-statistically-accurate-at-all poll of a few city chefs shows that the buying local trend hasn’t run out of steam, although being able to intimately map a food’s source is quickly gaining ground.

Continue reading Tapas Out, Meat In »

“Where the M***F*** cheese go?”

So went the Ween lyrics to a proposed Pizza Hut commercial jingle, which, though ultimately declined, is the perfect theme song to my quest for cheese fondue.

What I want is a gently bubbling pot of kirsch-kissed Swiss cheeses, melting but slightly chewy gooey to the bite - (think mozzarella on pizza just out of the oven), soaked up by stiff cubes of baguette. Raclette, or Swiss style cheese fondue, is something I thought would be easily found in Toronto – don’t we have everything?

Continue reading Fondue Finds »

This year I will serve a boiled fetus for Christmas dinner. That’s right – a boiled fetus. Turkey? B-o-r-i-n-g. Roast goose? Tiny Tim can keep it. Eggnog, fruitcake, roasted chestnuts: it’s all crap really. This year I intend to sit down with my loved ones - well, my family actually - and slurp up a fertilized embryo. It will be the beginning of a tradition I hope.

Every family should have its Christmas traditions. Growing up, mine mostly consisted of bickering and ugly recriminations. And as the glorious day approached I developed an increasingly agitated and morbid frame of mind. The sight of so many people being happy – or pretending to be happy – disturbed and confused me.

Perhaps that is why balut appeals to me as a Yuletide meal for my own family. Balut, a Philippine delicacy, is fertilized duck egg. Gastronomically, balut is a journey to the gates of Hell. It is the singularly most terrifying food available in Canada, beyond even head cheese or a Swanson Hungry Man Dinner.

Continue reading The Fetal Position »

With the buzz surrounding the taste and texture associated with the amount of marbling found in Kobe, Wagyu, USDA Prime, Black Angus, or Alberta AAA beef, and where more is often better, it’s no wonder that Torontonians have neglected the leaner red meats. Not trying to draw attention away from the vast array that a diner can choose from, but I am speaking specifically of horse.

Now before this post is bombarded with any nasty comments or readers reeling in disgust, let me justify this choice by stating that equine is commonly consumed in many European countries. Although unfamiliar to many North American palates, our city does host a handful of restaurants bold enough to offer this scrumptious cut in the midst of the Wagyu/Kobe hype. To further support this claim, I’ve had the fortune of sampling various versions belonging to the family Equidae over the last number of months. I love horses (and apparently in more ways than one), but dare I admit that equine is a delightful treat? I shall and have on numerous occasions as documented below. Read on with an open mind (and stomach), and for readers who still have issues with this concept, I’d like to redirect their attention to the continuing controversy with the readily available foie gras (unless they live in Chicago, that is).

Continue reading Horsing Around T.O. »

When I asked a vegetarian if he liked veggie dogs, the curt reply was: “I’d rather eat a real hot dog.” Contrary to his opinion, there are, however, many products that carnivores and herbivores can both enjoy. Some of them might give pause, like Lick’s Natureburger (grilled and smothered in their Guk sauce). Others are just right to hit the spot when you want something as substantial but don’t want to taste like flesh.

After a stint of being meat-phobic (blame it on watching one grisly episode of the X-Files), I acquired the taste for soy meats. Having been brought up on a tofu and whey protein/gluten steady diet helped, too. My first taste of a smoke-crisped veggie street dog laden in Toronto’s terrific toppings had me hooked.

Continue reading Where’s the Beef (Substitute)? »

I tried to be a vegetarian back in my early years of university – “tried” being the operative word. I could not turn my taste buds off of pork, as it is a staple ingredient in Cantonese cuisine, which I grew up with. Yes, I am a fan of this “other” white meat, and noticed that many pubs and restaurants in the city now have a slow-cooked drool worthy entrée on their menu – the pulled pork sandwich. What’s not to love about this sandwich? It has super tender meat enrobed in a barbecue sauce and cupped in a bun that soaks up the fat and sauce… yum. I did an overview of a few places to see who makes the meanest pulled pork out there. To slow the process of clogging up my arteries and decrease the risk of chronic stomach-aches, I limited myself to three places offering this “low-fat” handheld snack.

Continue reading Pulled Pork Put to the Test »

When I went to Joe to pick up the cucumbers and wild dill for my annual batch of pickles he had a case twice as big as last year. 40 pounds! “That’s how they come from the guy down there,” was his explanation. Joe runs Augusta Fruits (65 Nassau Street), a produce wholesaler in Kensington market, one of dozens a few decades ago, now one of the handful left. “The guy down there” he’s referring to is one of his suppliers at the Ontario Food Terminal, where nearly all of the produce in Toronto makes a stop. The Terminal is where growers and large-scale wholesalers sell their product to local wholesalers, who in turn supply Toronto’s restaurants. And I’ve always been way-curious about this Shangri-La of fruits and vegetables despite many people telling me how unexotic it is.

Joe agrees to take me with him. When I arrive at the shop at 11am Brad the delivery guy asks me what’s up. I tell him and he asks, “Why would you want to go there?” Why indeed.

Continue reading Where Apples Really Come From »